The present invention relates to shoulder rests for use with violins, violas or the like instruments.
Shoulder rests of this type are useful in increasing the comfort of proper holding of the instrument by a player regardless of the physical build of the player such as the length of his neck and the configuration of his or her shoulders.
One of the adjustments provided for in quality shoulder rests is the adjustment of a transverse inclination of the underside of the shoulder rest with respect to the plane of coincidence with the bottom of the instrument. That is to say, adjustment of the particular position at which the neck of the instrument is held with respect to a horizontal line must be adjustable while assuring full contact between the underside of the base of the shoulder rest and the player's shoulder. This is achieved by providing a pivotal securement whereby clamping members engaging the sides of the violin are pivotable about a transverse axis parallel with the elongation of the base of the shoulder rest.
My U.S. Pat. No. 3,631,754, issued Jan. 4, 1972, DT-OS 26 59 869 A1 (Wolf) and SU-Patent 395,889 (Chevachov) present examples of the adjustability as mentioned.
One of the problems of this arrangement of adjustable transverse angle is in that an inadvertent slippage may occur during the adjusting of the shoulder rest resulting in an accidental tipping over of the base about the transverse axis and scratching of the bottom of the instrument by the edge of the base of the shoulder rest when the side engaging forks are being attached to the instrument.
It is an object of the present invention to further advance the art of shoulder rests of the type mentioned and in particular to reduce the possibility of damaging the particular instrument, while retaining the possibility of adjustment of the transverse inclination of the base of the shoulder rest.
In general terms, the present invention provides a shoulder rest for violin or the like musical instrument, of the type comprising an elongated base having an undersurface formed to conform to the shoulder of a person, a pair of clamping members secured to the base one at each end thereof, for clamping the shoulder rest to a respective violin or the like by engaging opposed side portions thereof; each clamping member including two spaced apart clamping elements complementary with side portions of a respective violin or the like and an intermediate support means disposed between the respective clamping elements for engaging bottom portion of the respective violin or the like, said support means being complementary with and defining a support plane;
clamping member securement means for securing the respective clamping member to the base, said clamping member securement means including a pivotal joint disposed between the clamping member and the base and allowing pivotal movement of the respective clamping member relative to the base about a longitudinal axis generally parallel with the elongation of the base to thus allow the adjustment of a transverse inclination of the undersurface relative to the support plane; and
stop means operatively associated with the pivotal joint to limit said pivotal movement to an angle of from about 5.degree. to about 25.degree..